Mika was a diet ninja. One could say ninja light if they were feeling like being unnecessary. Between the training she received from Interpol and the training she had been given by Asami she could hold her own if she needed to. However, she was not born to this life, nor was she tempered in the fires of a kill or be kill world that Raizo was trained in. She understood that, and she appreciated the privilege at which she was able to learn her skills. However, as she stood tied up in the middle of what could politely be called a stone basement she knew that if they untied her she would rend everyone in that room to pieces. She was almost rabid with the rage that filled her. It had been a few scan hours ago that she had woken up. She knew two things. Asami was no longer alive, and Rokuro would be dead before the week was out. She swore it.
Although to be fair a lot of her vengeance was due to the skimpy outfit that he had trussed her up in. The thought of him undressing her made her shiver unpleasantly, and swallow the bile that threatened to escape her throat. He needed sever psychiatric monitoring, and there was no way of getting around it. She was in this dark red two piece number. She looked more like a concubine then the a member of a corporate faction of ninjas.
Rokuro at the moment was being berated by his grandfather. Rokuro's hateful but impressive form was sitting in a ridiculously ornate chair with his leg casually draped over the side. The psychopath was cleaning his nails and letting his grandfather drone on about honor, and the mess that he had gotten them into. Mika agreed. She didn't even bother trying to bargain with them. There would be no bargaining. Their only hope was to kill Raizo. He would not let one stone of this place stand while he was still breathing. Mika smiled, and relaxed in her binds. It was just a matter of time before Raizo found them, and Mika may or may not last until then, but she would make sure that Rokuro was dead before she left this earth.
Rokuro looked up to see Mika smiling, and Mika smiled even wider. "Are you enjoying this useless show my grandfather is putting on?" Rokuro's grandfather sputtered and coughed as if he had no idea what sort of disrespectful dog he had raised.
Mika laughed and wiggled in her binds a bit to see if he was stupid enough to leave them loose. "No, it's a waste of time. You'll be dead before the next full moon. Your best bet is to run and keep running. "
"I see." Rokuro rose and began to make a circle around her. "You think I want to run? No, I want him to come. I want you to see the life leave his eyes as I take you in front of him. I will capture him, and kill him slowly."
Mika was amused but decided to humor him. It wasn't as if she was going anywhere. "Then why not just challenge him at the tower? If you were so ready to meet death, why not court it where it came?"
"Where would the fun be in that? It's not fun fighting someone when they are weak." He stopped to her left, and picked up a strand of her hair. Rokuro brushed his own hair out of his eyes before letting them close. He leaned in close to her ear, and Mika wanted to recoil at the way his breath brushed against her skin. "I want him to think he'll win before I crush his dreams. Only then will I allow him to die; when he knows there is no more hope."
Rokuro turned to his grandfather and smiled. The younger fox was almost giddy with the pleasure of the prospective fight that was to come. Mika looked over the grandfather with a lift of her brow. She hoped he saw how insane his grandson was. The man had the decency to lower his eyes. Whatever honor he felt they had left had clearly disappeared this night. Rokuro lifted his arms in a stretch and looked back at Mika over his shoulder. The twisted grin on his face made Mika's flesh crawl and she wanted nothing more than to shoot him down the same way he had killed Asami.
"I think I will go laydown. I want to be well rested when they get here. I wouldn't want you to be dissatisfied when the time comes." Rokuro laughed at his own joke, and sauntered out of the hall in his delusion leaving Mika and his Grandfather alone.
"You know that you will need to disband, and give up don't you?" Mika turned her complete attention to the Stone Fox patriarch. She was hoping that he had more sense than his sick grandson. "Raizo will come and he will tear this place apart."
Shigorue lowered his head, and stood there for a few minutes as if in deep thought. She was hoping he was planning on how to get as many of his people out of there as he could before The Black Sand came for them. He lifted his head with a smile and shrugged. Mika's eyes lifted heavenward, and she was not starting do doubt his sanity as well.
"I know that you think we are insane little Lotus, but I assure you I view this upcoming war with great pragmatism." He frowned some at the way Mika scoffed, and shook his head. "You are too young. You do not understand what it is like to have children that you cannot control. Knowing something must be done, but unable to do what one must."
Mika watched him in confusion as he gathered his robes as he prepared to leave. "So you are willing to let your clan die in a misplaced murder suicide?" Mika spat in disgust, she wasn't sure what she was hearing, but she was mentally tallying the lives that were going to be lost if they went through this war. She had no doubt Raizo would win, but at what cost? Raizo would spare no effort or expense to get to them. Mika aside, Rokuro killed who was tantamount to his mother and honor demanded that he avenge her. The joke that Raizo was not was playing in her head, and the countless deaths that were about to happen unnecessary was making her weak.
"More of a fixed gamble, my dear. If Raizo wins this war, Rokuro will be stopped. I will also pass as I'd rather die than let Ozouno's bastard take my clan. Then nothingness and I will be at peace. However, If Rokuro pulls this off. I will have the strongest clan in the world. The Black Sand will die out, and the resources that they have amassed will belong to me. They will even get rid of my grandson."
Mika's eyes widen at the last part, and her face settles into a frowning wonder. "You are not going to save Rokuro? He's your grandson for heaven's sake!"
"I trust you have seen my grandson?" His snowy brows lifted as he awaited her response, and when he saw none was forth coming he nodded. He saw that she understood. "There is no way to help him. Once Raizo and Rokuro have killed each other I'll take you and the rest of the kunoichi that Raizo keeps, and use you all as breeding stock to create better off spring. They will be the finest warriors the world has ever seen."
"You're just as sick as he is." Mika murmured, and rested back onto the pillar she was tied to. They were going to have to extinguish every person standing in that compound.
Shigorue smiled and shrugged. "Well I can't say that Rokuro developed his sadism from his mother's line. They were very gentle people. It was a shame I had to break her. My son was too soft on her. I had to take Rokuro under my wing. He unfortunately had the negative benefit to be spoiled. I didn't teach him restraint." He turned to leave, and smiled at Mika pleasantly looking for the entire world like a benevolent grandfather. "I won't make the same mistake with my new children rest assured."
Mika watched him leave the basement with astonished hatred. There were very few things that she could not stand. Racism and bigotry at the top of her list, but she had never known hatred for particular persons. However, she was easily finding it within her heart to hate the Stone Fox clan. They did nothing but take and take, and Mika promised that would stop. They would not be allowed to leave his burrow, and infect the world further with their disease. They would help who they could, and put down the rest.
She laid her head back on the pillar, and allowed her limbs to relax in the ropes that bound her. She didn't really know how long she would stay that way, but she wanted to be ready when Raizo got there. When it started it would happen quickly, and she would make sure every promise she made to him and Asami were fulfilled. Dark eyes closed, and she mediated on what was to come. It would be war, and her side was coming.
It had been two days since the night at the Sand Tower. Interpol had collected their dead, and delivered them to the mountain. There was an investigation of course, but publically it was a terrorist attack. Unofficially neither the Japanese nor European government wanted any parts of what was about to happen. It was easier to just turn a blind eye the way they had done for hundreds of years when it came to the business of ninjas. Raizo avoided Maslow for now. He would have something to tell him by the end of the week. Either he or Mika were alive, or they were dead. He would not draw breath while she did not.
Twilight had fallen over the mountain, and it was time to start the funeral services. Here were at least forty pyres spread amongst the grounds of their ancestral home. Each ninja that rested had trained, fought, and dies with their comrades, and they would all follow Asami into the afterlife. Each pyre was connected by a trail of kindling that would be lit once Asami's had been lit. Raizo had avoided looking at the largest pyre in the center. It was covered with cherry blossoms, and each soft breeze would cause more to rain down. She had been dressed in her ceremonial robes, and Mai stood next to her grave with tears still falling down her cheeks.
Raizo had spent the last two nights trying to figure out how to get into the compound. It was beneath a dry cleaner, but they only opened when receiving shipments. Raizo knew his time table was short. IF he waited two long Rokuro would start trying to harm Mika in effort to provoke him into make a large mistake. However, he couldn't just go charging into the building. They had been discussing what to do amongst the war council, and he missed Mika. She would never give her two cents about the fighting decisions of the clan, but she allowed him to bounce ideas off of her. He would tell her whatever was on his mind, and she would just listen. Well he didn't have that. So now he would just have to figure out what to do to save her.
One of the kunoichi who attended his rooms came up to him and bowed letting him know, without words, that everything was ready. Not for the first time did he pray to the kami for their graciousness for the women in his life. They were a blessing that he had never ceased to be grateful for. He rose from his spot near the gate, and moved to the center near Asami's pyre. He had no choice but to face the fact that she was not coming back.
He looked out among those gathered. There were thousands of ninja in the compound, and more on the way there. He wasn't sure how the kunoichi made room for them all, but they had. They had clothed and fed the multitude that lined the roof and walkways of every inch of the compound. They were a legion, and the kunoichi never allowed him to lose face in their impromptu hospitality. Even now they started preparing for the events that would come after the ceremony. Something tickled at the back of Raizo's thoughts, but he let it rest he had to speak to the clan at this moment.
"Two nights ago my bride was stolen. Two nights ago, we lost our brothers and sisters in a battle that was cowardly forced upon us in the middle of the night." Raizo could tell by the grumbles throughout the camp that they were angry, and read for revenge. It was just under the surface. It was a fire that needed to be stoked, and Raizo would make sure that it was set ablaze.
"Two nights ago the honorless Clan of the Stone Fox stole into our tower, and dared to strike out at our clan. They believed we were too week to stop them!" There were angry shouts this time. They were not weak they were ready for war, and just waiting for the words. "Two nights ago they stole our beloved Blood Lotus from us. Two nights ago Asami's star was snuffed out of the sky."
There were angry shouts, and the sound of metal being pulled from their scabbards rung through the air. There was something Raizo was missing. He couldn't figure out what it was. He knew he was close. He knew that the answer was just out of his reach. "But they did not dim Asami's light. They may have ended her life, but her legacy shines before you as brightly as the sun!
Raizo looked to Mai who had stopped crying, and nodded to him. She was ready, and more than willing to go on a fox hunt. He just needed that piece that last piece that would set the foundations that Mika had set. She had given him the tools, but what was that part… "Tomorrow we will go into their burrows and pull the kitsune out by each of their tails! Dragging them out into the light that Asami shone in! We will we will make sure that there is not a hole they can crawl into because their lair will crumble. We will make sure that there is not an ounce of darkness that they can escape into because the light that Asami brought to us will drown out every shadow!" This time the mountains shivered with the force of the shouts of black sand that rang through the stone walls.
He looked to Mai who took the torch in her capable hands. The moment that she set Asami's pyre ablaze Raizo forced himself to watch as he owed it to Asami to bear witness to the price of letting his guard down. The fire slowly crept over Asami, and soon spread to the other pyres that surrounded her. The cool morning air was soon heated with the force of the flames that licked and carried each of their brothers and sister in arms away. He looked back out to his clan, and for the first time since he lost Mika he smiled.
"Do not mourn for those lost. They will continue to fight here after. They died as we should all wish to, on our feet. They will go into this next life protecting Asami, and the legacy that she fought for. "It was more of a comfort to him that she would not go alone then it probably was to anyone else. However, it brought him that much closer to figuring out what to do about the compound beneath Tokyo.
"We will win this war!" The sound of blood thirst was thunderous upon the mountain. He looked to the kunoichi who stood off to the side of the group benevolently watching. They were busy tending to the guest and the clan without a sound. They were dangerous, and carried death within each gentle hand. Raizo's smile became wider because he now knew exactly how to get to Mika. He knew exactly what the key to turning the lock of the door that kept him from going for Rokuro's throat. He turned to the rest of the ninja, and reveled in the satisfaction that came from knowing that they would win this war.
"Our victory lies in the hands of the kunoichi that stay within the mountains. " Raizo moved to the line of kunoichi, and drooped to his knees before them. He would not involve them if they did not wish to be. He forced no one to fight his battles for him. "I ask on behalf of the Black Sand for your help in this war. I understand that your preference is to stay here, but please lend us your strength to avenge our loved ones, and to get them back. "
They looked surprised to be asked as opposed to ordered. They looked around at each other not sure of what to do. Mai came up next to Raizo and dropped to her knees next to him. "Please I also ask for your help in avenging the Blood Lotus Asami, my grandmother."
Soon all of the members of the Black Sand went to one knee before them silently or not so silently calling out their own reasons for going into war. Each reason heartfelt and personal to the one making the request. The ladies being kneeled to seemed a bit overwhelmed, and they look to the one they considered their leader and she shrugged.
"What do you want us to do Ozouno Raizo?"